The Ayurvedic treatment of any disease primarily focuses on treating the disease with correction of diet in terms of 'What to eat, when to eat and how to eat, among all of these questions, 'What to eat is the most important. This 'What to eat' emphasizes the source of the meals that broadly includes fruits and vegetables devoid of harmful pesticides and chemicals.
A survey known as 'National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)' in the year 2019 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA advocates that there is 'An inverse association between organic food purchase and Diabetes Mellitus.' The survey also concluded that the individuals who reported purchasing organic foods were less likely to have Diabetes Mellitus than those who did not buy the organic food purchase.
One of the most common symptoms of diabetes is fatigue, other than more frequency of urination, excessive thirst, and hunger. This results in the loss of minerals from the body that needs to be supplemented from healthy sources and food. Organic foods have more antioxidants and minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, iron, calcium, and the most needed 'Vitamin C.' Along with being rich in nutrients, organic foods contain fewer nitrates and pesticide residues as compared to the foods produced in an inorganic environment and means.
The Ayurvedic organic diet advocates diabetic patients to eat seasonal and regional meals instead of the food grown in the environment having artificial pesticides and chemicals that are detrimental to their health. The science behind this advocacy is that organically grown food has almost 30-50% more antioxidants than those grown with artificial fertilizers and chemicals. The extra antioxidants available in organic meals help in countering the oxidative stress produced in the body by free radicals formation. The availability of antioxidants in organic food is now not hidden, and this alone has a big value for diabetic patients to start consuming organic food to combat this oxidative stress.
While the dietitians, nutritionists, and practitioners of modern science ask people with diabetes to curtail their consumption of fats and dairy products which in all senses is true, but they need to supplement their need for healthy fats in the body. This comes with the consumption of organic dry fruits in almonds, walnuts, chia, dry fig, and flax seeds. Thus, it becomes imperative to source these from an organic environment as Ayurveda thrusts upon the importance of naturally grown meals to counter illness and not from artificial means.
It is a separate matter as to how people control or reverse diabetes mellitus, i.e., with Ayurveda or with Modern medicine; the most important factor is to use their kitchen herbs such as Haldi, Neem Karela, or Jamun from organic sources. A healthy physical workout gets complimented only when the diet is sourced from a healthy environment, as the diet alone has a role of 70% in reversing diabetes. This is not an assumption but the years of scientific works from various US scholars in their path-breaking work of 'Reversing Diabetes' in their country with the most unhealthy eating habits.
It is as important as what kind of meals help in diabetes; it is equally essential for people with diabetes to avoid diets that aggravate their condition. This includes meals with simple carbohydrates. If we take the Ayurveda perspective into account, diabetes or health seekers should avoid meals that form mucus in the body. This will clog the surface of the cells and make the insulin's action more difficult to use the sugar inside the cells.
People with diabetes mellitus need to be wary of every meal they eat as diabetes is a metabolic syndrome that paves the way for the other ailments and complications that lead to heart diseases, stroke, blindness, and kidney diseases.
Eating organic food may prove somewhat costly initially, but the health benefits it gives easily surpasses the opportunity cost due to conditions like diabetes, where a person has to depend on lifelong medications that have adverse effects.
Credits: Dr. Bhupesh Vashisht
